AVOIDING THE TRAP
Jets not about to look past struggling Titans
The text message from Bill Parcells popped up on Todd Bowles’ phone Sunday night after the Jets’ 23-20 overtime win over the Giants.
“Everybody’s talking playoffs, just coach your team and worry about the next game,” the text read.
The Jets face the 3-9 Titans this week as they come off the emotional win against the Giants. This is the type of game that would always worry Parcells — a trap game. He sometimes would hang mouse traps around the locker room before games like this. So, he gave Bowles, the first-year Jets coach, a reminder to avoid the playoff talk circulating in the media and with fans and worry about the Titans.
“I understand what he’s saying,” Bowles said. “To a point, you buy it. But to a point, you have to be consistent with your team and do the same things you’ve been doing. We don’t look at any game as a trap game, we look at it as the next game. We’ve just got to take care of us.”
The 7-5 Jets enter the final four games of the season in position to make the playoffs if they don’t collapse. They are not quite in control of their playoff fate, but there are not many scenarios that will keep them out if they run the table. But the Jets are stressing that they are not thinking about the postseason, just Marcus Mariota and the Titans coming to MetLife Stadium this week.
“The way I look at it is they just put up 40 points and the defense is ranked eighth overall,” wide receiver Brandon Marshall said. “So, it’s definitely not a trap game. It’s going to be a very difficult game for us.”
Marshall is right about the Titans having the eighth-ranked defense in the NFL and coming off a 42-39 win over the Jaguars. But the Titans are 3-9 and that win was their first in four games. Mariota has played well, but he does not have much around him.
The Jets have played two of their better games this season in the last two weeks and have been getting a ton of praise. This brings another Parcells phrase to mind, “Don’t take the cheese.”
The Jets have said all the right things about taking the Titans seriously and putting the big win over the Giants behind them.
“We’re not a good enough team to overlook anybody,” quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick said. “We’ve got to treat everyone like it’s the playoffs, we’re in the playoffs right now trying to win each week. I don’t think you’ll see, hear or feel that out of our team at all.”
The Jets need to get on a run, which they have not done in a long time, to make the playoffs a reality. They have not won three games in a row since 2011 and have not won four consecutive since 2010.
“At this point, it’s about who can get hot ,” Marshall said. “You’ve got to take it one game at a time, but when you look back and really study the game, it’s the teams who really come together at the end of November/December. Right now, we won two games, really big games for us, and it’s another huge one for us. If we can stay on this roll, no telling what happens.”
Bowles will be leaning on the advice Parcells gave him Sunday night. Bowles said he hears from Parcells after every game.
“After losses he has words of wisdom and after wins he wants to press and keep going,” Bowles said. “The biggest thing in the middle of the season when we were losing, lost four out of five, was ,‘ No one remembers mid season losses. It’s how you finish .’ That one stuck out.”